Dalton — Cromm Cruaich of Mugh Sleacht. 55 



It is manifest, therefore, that the god who had been so exalted in 

 distinction by Gaels and pre-Gaels did not, after his discomfiture by 

 St. Patrick, wholly forfeit the goodwill of his subjects throughout Ireland. 

 Eather, while abdicating his empire over their spiritual natures, he retained 

 in goodly measure the homage of their minds and hearts. As the centuries 

 passed by his familiar figure and functions faded from the national recollec- 

 tion. Forgotten he was not;' but, deprived of his transcendental attributes, 

 and confined to the terrestrial universe, he shrank into enhemerized 

 likenesses of his original self. In West Mayo he got so thoroughly humanized 

 that even O'Donovan failed to recognize in him the deposed deity, and 

 unsuspectingly took him to be, as was there believed, " a chieftain in Umhall, 

 who had been a powerful opponent of St. Patrick, but was converted by 

 St. Patrick on this day." " In doubt as to this identification, Todd goes near 

 to provoking a smile by objecting that O'Donovan " gives no authority for 

 the existence of any such person " as Crom Dubh.' 



In that I'are retreat of hoary legend, the environment of Lough Gur in 

 County Limerick, the Eonadh Crom Dubh, or staff of Black Crom, is a 

 leading feature of the existing stone circle ; while the " tradition of harvest 

 offerings, lingering in the folk-lore of that locality, identifies Crom as the 

 little black man who first brought wheat into Ireland." * Cromwell Hill in 

 the same county was apparently one of his shrines, for an ivy-covered rock 

 of conical shape, rising from its southern side, is still called Caislean Crom.^ 

 Not improbably the war-cry of the FitzGeralds, " Crom-aboo," made the same 

 old deity's name resound on many a battlefield ; for there is reason to 

 believe that Croom on the Maigue took its name from a stone emblem of 

 Crom, now lying neglected beside the river. ^ 



' Thus N. O'Kearney, a competent authority on the customs of the Irish peasantry, 

 knew that the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday immediately succeeding La Lugnasa " were 

 called Aoine, Satharn, agus Domnach Aine agus Chroim Duibh " ; these days being sacred 

 to Aine, in conjunction with Crom, a universally acknowledged deity of the Pagan Irish 

 (Trans. Kilk. Arch. Soc, ii, 35) ; and that " Crom's festival was celebrated by the 

 husbandmen . . .in gratitude for having brought the fruits of the earth to perfection " 

 (Ossianic Society's Publications, vol. i, p. 105). 



- " Four Masters," anno 1117. For the Umhall " chieftain," vide poem cited supra, 

 p. 49, note 1, and infra, p. 64, note 1. 



3 " Life of St. Patrick," p. 129. 



4 Journ. of Limerick F. Club, iii, 56 (Paper by Mr. P. J. Lynch, m.r.i.a.). 

 ^ Ibid., p. 54. 



^ Ibid., p. 56. Alike suggestion would apply to Crom Castle, the Earl of Erne's 

 beautiful seat, a few miles north-east of Slieve Russell. For an amusing development 

 of Crom's euhemerization, see a note of E. O'Curry, at p. 270 of " O. S. L.," Mayo, 

 vol. ii. 



B.I. A. tKOO., VOL. XX.\VI, SECT. 0. [^1 



